Route: London Wetland Centre
Area: London
Date of walk: 29th August 2018
Walkers: Andrew and Gilly
Distance: 3.0 miles
Weather: Bright
London Wetland Centre is managed by the World Wildlife Trust (WWT) and is a 100 acre urban oasis for wildlife consisting of lakes, ponds and gardens. Despite its location in central London, the wetlands are home to an incredible array of wildlife – the list of bird sightings for August alone includes such species as Shelduck, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, Black-tailed Godwit, Redshank, Snipe, Common Tern, Garganey, Marsh Harrier, Peregrine, Buzzard, Hobby, Little Egret, Whinchat, Yellow Wagtail, Pied Flycatcher and Wheatear. In addition there are numerous varieties of dragonflies and other insects, as well as lizards, grass snakes and slow worms
This great urban conservation project was the vision of Sir Peter Scott, the founder of WWT. In 1989 four redundant reservoirs stood where the Wetland Centre is now and work began after planning permission was granted in 1995. More than 300,000 water plants and 27,000 trees were planted, paths were built, lakes and ponds were formed, and reptiles from brownfield sites that were scheduled for development were rescued and brought here
Today would be our first visit to this inspiring place. We caught the London Underground to Putney Bridge and walked along the Thames Path before entering the Wetland Centre. We wandered around the ponds and lagoons and spent a short amount of time in a couple of the hides before making a diversion to watch the otters being fed – a wonderful sight
There’s enough interest for a full day’s visit but we only had limited time to spare today, so barely scraped the surface. It was a wonderful visit though and I hope we can return for a proper exploration
Click on the icon below for a location map – a layout plan showing the paths and points of interest is given out at the entrance to the Centre
Scroll down – or click on any photo to enlarge it and you can then view as a slideshow
On arriving in London, we checked into the Pullman Hotel - this is the amazing view of St Pancras from the 12th floor
The start of our short riverside walk from Putney Bridge to the London Wetlands Centre (there are closer tube stations but we wanted to check out the Thames Path)
We follow the riverside path for a couple of miles...
We turn left here to head towards nearby London Wetlands Centre
Just before the entrance - a wasp spider in the flowerbeds
The spider mimics a wasp to deter predators, but is not dangerous itself
We enter the Wetlands Centre
The bronze statue of Sir Peter Scott at the entrance, shown drawing a Beswick Swan
The statue was unveiled by Sir David Attenborough in 2000
View over the main lake from the observatory
Male otter, one of two, at feeding time...
Just a few of the many species of ducks to be found here - this is a Goldeneye
Moorhen
Mallard
Canada Geese....
Some photos of our walk around the South route...
We could have stayed all day, but wanted to catch up with our nephew Tom and his girlfriend Charlotte, who live nearby
We left the Wetland Centre to resume our walk along the Thames Path, passing by Craven Cottage, home to Fulham FC
A very high tide prevented progress at one point and we had to turn inland briefly...
View across the Thames
Improving weather on the final section near Richmond
The end of the Thames Path for us as we head inland into Richmond - we'd walked about 10 miles of this 184 miles trail, which runs from from the source of the Thames in the Cotswold hills to the sea
Next morning, that view of St Pancras from our hotel, and we go for a short walk in the Fitzrovia area
A few photos of buildings seen along the way
Two golden tickets to round off a wonderful visit to the capital
